UN Academic Impact (United Nations Academic Impact) ASPIRE (Actions by Students to Promote Innovation and Reform through Education) is a voluntary student organization which was founded to ‘change the world through education’. It does this through many activities which are aimed to encourage and motivate the younger generation to engage with global issues. It is an affiliated organization of the UN Academic Impact.

This forum is held by several cosponsors, such as Handong University, UN Academic Impact Korea (UNAI Korea), and UNAI ASPIRE. UNAI Korea is in charge of conducting the forum. The University for Creative Korea (CK) will be a sponsor mainly through donations.

The 1st Global Citizenship forum was held in 2015, where students discussed about ‘global citizenship and roles of the young generation’. Compared to the previous one, the 2nd Global Citizenship Forum will go further, discussing about ‘challenging the SDGs generation’. During the forum, students of UNAI Aspire will introduce 17 sustainable development goals that were made by the UN and think of methods that an individual can do in order to achieve those goals.

The forum will be divided into three sessions. ‘Disabilities Enable Counter Ideas’ (Kim Hyeon-yong, teacher of Guryong Middle School), ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ (Kim Gwang-hyeon, teacher of Patagonia Korea), and ‘Adventures in a Multi-cultural Society’ (Cha Yoon-gyeong, professor of Hanyang University) are the titles of each session. Every topic will lead us to think about our roles in dealing with social problems, especially as a global citizen.

The forum will encourage participants to think about the remaining global issues, and will also guide them towards specific and practical actions.

We are expecting this forum to bring up a great ripple effect within the local community, not only for Handong University students but also for local middle· high school students. It will provide the students and opportunity to recognize their own responsibilities, for they are the leading roles of the next generation.